Corporeal Forms

Author/Artist Name

Ella CurranFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Spring 4-14-2023

Artist Statement

The human body is the only tangible thing that connects us to the earth. So much is contained within it, at the same time so much happens around it - including ongoing attempts to politicize and regulate bodies in our contemporary climate. We are bound by forces outside of ourselves. Whether the limitation is self-inflicted, relational, or societal, it asks for reflection. My practice is a response to these forces, an assertion of my physical self onto materials that become a record of my presence. Through the labor and performance involved in creating this work, I perceive myself. It gives me permission to be in the liminal spaces of growth and to explore my place within them.

This series embodies the evolution of self. Lived experiences, life cycles, and the properties of natural materials are the starting points. The sculptures reckon with the absence of the body. Whether pressed, contained, or recreated, each work is done to human scale. The inclusion of video allows creation and interaction to exist alongside the object. The works act as artifacts documenting moments through these cycles from confinement to the remains left behind from emergence/death. I offer up my vulnerability, frustration, and joy, making space for the shared experience of facing these cycles in the hope that we will not be still.

Exploration of the limitations of the materials is essential to my process. I begin with the creation of a structure or framework; a rigid boundary to contain the fluid work. This could be the camera view, wood, steel, or hardened forms of ceramic, concrete, or plaster. These become analogs for the physical body. There is an opposition between the high level of attention to the container in comparison to the raw quality of the materials that fill the frame. The fluid elements include water, sand, earth, polyfill, wax, and light. To these there are minimal adjustments or interventions. The material speaks for itself. The manipulation of light, transparency, and visibility is used to conceptualize how our understanding of the world is constantly changing.

Surrendering to the material's inherent properties pushes the work conceptually from a purely physical awareness of the body to a spiritual one. The relationship between the concrete and changeable echoes the need to engage and adapt as we try to know ourselves and our world. This mode of creating with materials allows the work to exist in a perpetual state of the in-between: the liminal state of the rigid, physical world/pressures and the fluid, abstract realm. We will gain the courage to be active participants in aligning with ourselves inwardly and our interconnected world externally.

Advisor/Mentor

Prof. Sarah Martin; Prof. Cintia Segovia; Prof. Danielle Muzina; Prof. Jeanne Beaver

Description

Corporeal Forms exhibits a series of sculptures and videos that engage with a range of media including wood, steel, concrete, sand, earth, textiles, plaster, wax, and light. The works examine the tension between the physical world and the inner self through the exploration of these materials when confronted with the body.

Recommended Citation

Curran, Ella, "Corporeal Forms" (2023). B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498). 119.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/119